Making Birmingham an inclusive city

Recommendations

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Based on the findings of the process the steering group has established seven commitments to social inclusion underpinned by a series of recommendations. The seven social inclusion commitments are: 1. Support families and children out of poverty… o by building an inclusive growth strategy that can bring jobs and prosperity across all communities. This could be helped by encouraging the development of distinctive economic ‘locales’ with a greater emphasis on small businesses. o and supporting vulnerable families by working with them to understand and develop support and services they need. For example, parenting support, flexible child care, and employment support. 2. Embrace superdiversity… by understanding the unprecedented variety of cultures, identities, faiths, and languages that have transformed the social landscape of Birmingham, leading to a change in the way that city leaders and citizens connect and communicate, the way plans for the city are shaped and the way that services are provided to reflect Birmingham’s superdiversity. 3. Protect the most vulnerable… by ensuring there is a concerted and co-ordinated preparation to mitigate against the worst effects of the welfare reform changes, in particular on the most vulnerable people in society. 4. Connect people and places… by reducing the cost of and increasing access to public transport by developing a digitally connected Birmingham and by creating a “barrier free” city - ensuring that disabled people have access, on an equal basis with others, to the social, cultural and economic life of the city. 5. Create a city that values children and young people… by developing a youth employment strategy for the city that turns education success into career success and by establishing a job or apprenticeship guarantee for every young person in the city. 6. Empower people to shape their neighbourhood… by developing a neighbourhood strategy for the city, encouraging greater participation and strengthening relationships between different areas through neighbourhood ‘twinning’. 7. Address safety, isolation and loneliness… by developing services that reduce isolation and loneliness of older people such as recreational activities, intergenerational activities and volunteering, alongside developing a safe strategy that ensures people live and grow up in safe environments. 28
Commitment One: Support families and children out of poverty There are well-established links between income, health and wellbeing. With over a third of children in Birmingham living in poverty, most living in families trapped in low-paid jobs, and with unemployment stubbornly high. Income inequality remains the primary barrier to social inclusion. A low wage economy is preventing sustainable economic growth for Birmingham and is holding back its ability to create a skills base suitable for the future. Early success in replacing an industrial past with city centre regeneration has not always trickled down to communities and on its own is not able to effect the change that is needed. A new approach to growth is needed – one that is inclusive and creates jobs for people in the city. The steering group makes the following recommendations: Inclusive growth 1.1 Produce a ‘distinctively Birmingham’ inclusive growth strategy The city council, working with business and education experts and with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), should develop a local inclusive growth strategy for Birmingham. The strategy should integrate plans for investment with plans for unemployment and target the areas of greatest need. It should operate on two levels: first, at the level of the city and second, targeted action around local areas or ‘locales’ within the city that have distinctive strengths and challenges. 1.2 Develop an approach to ‘locales’ Locales aim to bring community development and economic development together. The ‘locale’ concept would encourage Birmingham to consider the diversity of locales or local economies that lie within the city. It is important to appreciate that every ‘locale’ will have different infrastructural advantages and difficulties and will have distinctive features within its local economy. Using a co-production and co-design approach, it is proposed that Birmingham City Council works with local residents and businesses to identify local areas which have a distinctive functioning economic geography (DFEG). In addition, it is proposed that development boards could be established in every locale. These will bring together local firms, educational establishments and policy makers to support the area’s DFEG. They will bring a local approach to areas such as planning, economic development, and the use of community assets and local open spaces. 29
Page 1 and 2: White Paper March 2013 Making Birmi
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword - A call to actio
Page 5 and 6: Executive summary The Social Inclus
Page 8 and 9: Section One: Background We all love
Page 10 and 11: Why improving social inclusion is i
Page 12 and 13: Skills gap Providing job opportunit
Page 14 and 15: Place findings The Place KLOE consi
Page 16 and 17: Regeneration approaches need to be
Page 18 and 19: “Our neighbourhood is often refer
Page 20 and 21: to educate people about ex -offende
Page 22 and 23: Inclusive Economic Growth findings
Page 24 and 25: Young People findings The Young Peo
Page 26 and 27: feeling that young people as a whol
Page 30 and 31: 1.3 Build local employment and skil
Page 32 and 33: Early progress… Recommendation 1.
Page 34 and 35: 2.5 Ensure Birmingham develops an
Page 36 and 37: 3.3 Combat fuel poverty Fuel pover
Page 38 and 39: 4.4 Create a ‘barrier free’ cit
Page 40 and 41: 5.3 Provide free transport for youn
Page 42 and 43: Commitment Six: Empower people to s
Page 44 and 45: Early progress… Recommendation 6.
Page 46 and 47: 7.2 Develop a safe strategy for the
Page 48 and 49: Section Five: Building a movement f
Page 50 and 51: Cannon Hill Park Parkrun Part of pa
Page 52 and 53: 2013, organisers arranged a Big Dig
Page 54 and 55: A diverse range of production ensur
Page 56 and 57: company which has been specially as
Page 58 and 59: mind the steering group will ensure
Page 60 and 61: Our thanks also go to the following
Page 62 and 63: Karen Spence, Birmingham City Counc
Page 64 and 65: Sharon Lea, Birmingham City Council
Page 66: An Anatomy of Economic Inequality i

Making Birmingham an inclusive city

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